January 19, 2024

Passage Read: Judges 10-13
Meditation Verses: 11:1-2

Thought

Jephthah was the son of Gilead by a prostitute, so Gilead was not a faithful believer in God, at least in his youth. He apparently married after that and had other sons by his wife. Those sons drove Jephthah out of his father's land when they grew up, as if it was Jephthah's fault his mother was a prostitute. His father had taken him in, accepted responsibility for raising him, and likely being the firstborn, he stood to inherit the double portion, so there may have been jealousy over that in the mix. Gilead was apparently dead already or too aged to do anything, because there's no mention of him. Despite all this, Jephthah seems to be quite loyal to the Lord, trusting in Him in a right way.

Application

I cannot condemn a person because of the wrong choices of their parents, nor should I reject someone because they didn't grow up in a correct household. That doesn't make the sinful behavior of the previous generation correct or less sinful. What's wrong is wrong. But a child born of an improper relationship shouldn't be condemned for something he or she had no control over. They still have as much capacity to know and love God as anyone else, and deserve as much a chance to hear and know Him as any other child. The sins of the parents should not be held against the child.